NYU Startup Invents Tattoos That Only Last A Year Or Two Before Dissolving

Trending News: Someone Invented A Not-So-Permanent Tattoo

Why Is This Important?

Because these tattoos give you an easy out if you get sick of the design.

Long Story Short

Concerned about committing to a tattoo for life, a team of NYU students and grads invented a technique that makes the ink disappear in a year or two. If that's too long for you, Mr. Non-Commitment, they've also developed a safe and easy way to get that 'live, laugh, love' mistake off your thigh.

Long Story

With so many people getting tattoos nowadays, we're bound to have a lot of grannies and grampies with some baggy sleeves, if you know what I mean. But not if this cool not-so-permanent tattoo technique catches on.

The idea first came to CEO Seung Shin when he was thinking about getting inked himself, but was worried what his family would think.

“I come from a traditional Asian family, so my parents despise tattoos,” Shin said to NYU student newspaper Washington Square News. “I thought, ‘I’m a college guy, I’m an adult,’ so I decided to get a tattoo anyway."

Of course his parents hated it and wanted him to get it removed.

Here's how it works:

Traditional tattoos pump your skin with dye that's made up of big molecules — too big for your body to get rid of like it would normal bacteria. Shin's genius plan, is to use small ink made up of organic compounds that aren't so toxic and can apparently be safely absorbed by the skin. Now here's the interesting part. To make sure the ink doesn't just get absorbed right away, the ink is encapsulated in a special capsule that only lasts about a year or two before dissolving. If that's too long for you or you want to make changes, they've developed a removal solution, which can take away the whole art piece or fix mistakes just by tracing over the tattoo with a special gun.

Already with some investment and the title of “Coolest College Startup” from Inc.com, Shin hopes it'll get iffy millennials hooked in numbers.

"Five years down the road, I hope we’ve substantially dented the tattoo industry, its culture and its future,” he said to WSN. “I hope to see a lot more people with ink.”